Help choosing a budget laptop asap

[JudyM]

Want to spend around $400, need it right away, been looking for sales, heaviest use will be having lots of internet tabs going at once for research, then the usual word processing, emailing, some photo; no heavy gaming, video editing or business use. Want to buy new.

Is a quad-core going to make a significant enough difference in web browsing speed to warrant spending extra $50ish? Don't need lightning fast speed, mostly just don't want any routine website loading delays like I had with my old pc). Also...
Is an i3 processor any better than an AMD, as a general rule?
Is a 320 gb significantly worse than a 640 (I have an external drive for storage) Reason I ask is there's a 320 gb Lenovo with a little slower processor, and I've read that Lenovo is superior.
Is there an older type of laptop/processor that I should look at for more bang for the buck?

Have come up with these two, would you have any other rec's?:
(both have 4 gb RAM, running Windows 7 Premium, 64 bit)

HP g6-2123us on sale at Staples for about $350:

3.0GHz/2.6GHz AMD Dual-Core A6-4400M Accelerated Processor (cpubenchmark rated this 2814)

1MB L2 Cache

640GB hard drive


Acer Aspire E1-571-6650, on sale at Microcenter, also about $350:

2nd gen i3-2370M processor (cpubenchmark rated this 3166 -- would this be a noticeable difference from the hp in terms of speed?)

3MB level 3 Cache

500 GB

If you've made it through this far, thank you -- and hopefully you can help!

[MannyGoldstein]

1. Either will be more than enough for your needs

I've found Acers to be more reliable but you might want to check for stats online. I'd probably go with whichever one had better size, weight, or battery life.

My wife has a similar Acer that we got from Microcenter, very nice unit.

Good luck! I expect you'll be happy either way.

[JudyM]

5. Thank you for that. nt

[csziggy]

2. I just bought my husband an Acer Aspire notebook

From New Egg.com. Delivered to door with an extra 4GB RAM for $371. I don't remember the specs or the model (and NewEgg doesn't seem to have the same one available now), but it was perfect out of the box, easy to install the memory, not a lot of bloatware.

My husband is very pleased with his new computer. He's been working on a five year old XP machine that just was not handling web browsing or even basic video. The new one connects to our wireless router at a faster rate and he could finally get into our home network, something he could never do before.

Our older notebook is also an Acer and has never been a problem. It's about five or so years old, so that is a pretty good time span. The only thing I have against it is the Vista operating system.

[JudyM]

6. Right.

The one I'm replacing is 8 years old, so anything would be better! Glad you're having good luck with yours.

[Lugnut]

14. I had to buy a new computer a couple of weeks ago.

My daughter found me an Acer Aspire desktop at Tiger Direct for $400. I considered a laptop but my Kindle Fire does most of what I need it to do and I really wanted a desktop. I've had an Acer monitor for a few years and it's been great. I always check CNET's reviews before I buy anything and Acer gets a lot of good ones. I'm using the new Acer for three weeks and so far, so good.

[DavidL]

3. More tabs open in browser has more to do with

the browser you are using.

Either of those computers will handle Google Chrome Browser, which I suggest if you are having more than a half dozen tabs open at once. Google Chrome also has a handy history of last pages browsed organized by days and time, so you can go back and find something from last week Tuesday easily.

320 GB of hard drive as adequate, unless you like 1000's of songs and several dozen 20 minute videos stored on it.

Think length of guarantee, and ease of service access, should you need it down the road in a while.

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

4. Welcome

[JudyM]

7. Thanks and welcome to DU, DavidL!

I've used chrome in the past but like firefox better... maybe i'll check out chrome again if it's that much lighter. I've also heard from different tech experts that what's needed for heavy tabbed browsing is more 'video memory' on the motherboard, more cache memory, a more robust processor, a quad-core... seems like no one agrees!

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

8. I like firefox as well but...

...it does tend to hog memory. I have 8 tabs open currently and firefox is using a bit under 400MB of memory.
(i7 with 4GB of RAM)

[DavidL]

9. 8 tabs, 400 MB, not too much, but

12 tabs, with 4 GB of Ram memory, not a big drag on any computer with 3-4 GB Ram. 12 tabs can take up 120 MB, or 700 MB of space, still not too much on a 3-4 GB Ram system.

Of course, all the tab has to keep is about 10 MB of page in RAM, and the rest on page files, or whatever

So 20-30 tabs in Google Chrome, easily managed.

[JudyM]

18. Been using Chrome for the past week, liking it, no hangups so far.

... might be because using the new computer(s), too, though, don't know. i like that you can search
'incognito' but i hope that it's not collecting info on me since it's a google product...

[CK_John]

10. Memory is most important in having many open tabs, a quad core

allows for more memory.

It is just not memory but how much memory can be handled by your motherboard. Usually 4GB is max, 8GB for multi core.

FF 14.0.1 has better memory control handling than previous versions, the trend is to not open a tab until it is needed or used. This may cause extra swaping but gets much more efficient as the num of tabs in use go up.

[JudyM]

17. can add another 4 GB memory to both laptops, though, right?

[RoccoR5955]

11. Go to MicroCenter

They have the best deals on the best stuff for a big box outfit. Either go to the store, or shop online at www.microcenter.com

[steve2470]

12. please let us know what you decide upon, thanks nt

[JudyM]

16. Current status: ditched the HP, now deciding between the Acer and Lenovo

I decided to go with an Intel i3 processor instead of the AMD, that's why I dropped the HP.

The Lenovo G570 4334 ezu was the same price as the Acer, around $350 on sale.
It has pretty much the same specs as the Acer. The Lenovo has the same CPU, same GB RAM and hard drive.

I have them both at home, trying them (free return within 14 days). I kind of like the Acer better in terms of mouse responsiveness and definitely it's better looking (the Lenovo deck is pretty ugly, IMO), but everyone I talk to says no question Lenovo is going to be more reliable.

So still considering. Thoughts?

[LanternWaste]

13. In addition to previous suggestions on your thread...

Every computer I've bought, I've asked if there was either a refurbished (machine did not originally pass quality control tests, taken apart at factory, and rebuilt at factory, and passed new quality control test), or a display model. Either one will reduce your out of pocket by 20%-40%.

Good luck!

[Alan_Silverman]

19. An offnote on refurbished

I get refurbished Dell latitudes from their small business store when they do their % off coupons. Not for gaming but sturdy well made laptops. They still come with three year warranties.

[HopeHoops]

15. I'd go with the HP there.